Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this Topical Issue today. The Rural Independent Group recently tabled a Private Members' motion. We had consultation with the Departments of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Communications, Climate Action and Environment and the Taoiseach. The motion was agreed and we were delighted. Everybody supported it here. In Monday's edition of the Irish IndependentCharlie Weston reported that an unpublished report, which we have been awaiting, will recommend that 80 post offices should close. If these indications from the unpublished report are accurate, our worst fears will have been realised. It will result in increased economic hardship, increased social isolation and an escalation of the decline of rural communities.

I remind the Government that as recently as last November, it supported a Dáil motion on the future of the post office network tabled by the Rural Independent Group. We asked for clear and explicit commitments in terms of seeking out new and innovative approaches to sustaining the post offices in rural communities. We all thought that acceptance of that Dáil motion meant we were all right. However, here we are. The Government is doing nothing while Rome burns and is twiddling its thumbs. The Government is either committed to rural post offices or it is not. So far all the indications are that the Government will continue to speak out of both sides of its mouth on this issue. We need absolute clarity. We need an acknowledgement that rural areas cannot cope with the level of withdrawal of services going on at present, including post offices, credit unions and what is happening with our roads. It could lock the people up altogether, as Deputy Ó Cuív said. It gave us no broadband either.

As a Deputy from a rural county, the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, should understand. I think it might have been a trick by the Taoiseach when announcing his last Cabinet he split ownership across three Departments and no one knows who is responsible. None of them is responsible and none of them is looking after it. The Government is closing them by stealth. It will not allow them do motor tax or driver licences. It will not allow them to be tourist offices. It will not allow them do the parcel post. It is strangling them with their hands behind their backs and eyes blindfolded.

As the Minister of State knows, the postmasters and postmistresses give sterling service. There is a huge social aspect to their service and they are willing to do much more if the Government lets them. Successive governments have closed them by stealth, but this Government has been the worst. We are going to be stripped of more post offices resulting in less connectivity. It was buses last week and also last week the credit union in Clonmel was bulldozed into taking over debts from Charleville credit union. Now it is the post offices.

The Minister of State has no empathy with rural areas. Is he trying to punish the electorate after it punished Government members for their reign of terror over five years in bailing out the banks? Is it trying to take away everything from rural communities? Given that he is a rural Deputy, the Minister of State should know what is going on. He should hang his head in shame. The post offices represent the last bastion. The Government let the Garda stations go. If it were approached imaginatively, the post offices could also be used in the evening time to allow the community garda be in there for an hour to meet people. There are many imaginative ways to support the post offices instead of strangling them, stifling them, kicking them down the road and insulting the good postmasters and postmistresses. There is huge waste in the GPO with many staff who have had no meaningful work for decades. The Government should look at where the real problem is with waste and not with the individual post offices.

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